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Willy Ben Chen
Chapter1AmericanGovernmentandCivicEngagement2020.pptxChapter 1: American Government and Civic Engagement
American and National Government
PL-102
Instructor Walter Pearn
Chapter Objectives
Explain what government is and what it does.
Identify the type of government in the United States and compare it to other forms of government.
Distinguish between politics and government.
Identify the three branches of government.
Chapter Objectives
Define social contract.
Distinguish between politics and political power.
Explain how an elected official can exercise legitimate power.
Government defined
Government describes the means by which a society organizes itself and allocates authority in order to accomplish collective goals and provide benefits that the society as a whole need.
Among the goals that governments around the world seek to accomplish are economic prosperity for the nation, secure national borders, and the safety and well-being of citizens.
Government
The institutions and processes by which decisions or rules are made and enforced for all members of society.
The Congress, President and Supreme Court are all parts of Government.
Politics/Political Power
Politics
Political Power
Refers to the process of gaining and exercising control within a government for the purpose of setting and achieving goals especially those related to the division of resources within a nation.
A method of deciding who get what from the government.
The influence of an individual or a group on the political behavior.
Capitalism
In theory, a democratic government promotes individualism and the freedom to act as one chooses instead of being controlled, for good or bad, by government.
Capitalism, in turn, relies on individualism.
At the same time, successful capitalists prefer political systems over which they can exert at least some influence in order to maintain their liberty.
Democracy and Capitalism
Democracy and capitalism do not have to go hand in hand.
One might argue that a capitalist economic system might be bad for democracy in some respects.
Capitalism can lead to prosperity for all.
Democracy and Capitalism
Great gaps in wealth between the owners of major businesses, industries, and financial institutions and those who work for others in exchange for wages exist in many capitalist nations.
Great wealth may give a very small minority great influence over the government—a greater influence than that held by the majority of the population, which will be discussed later.
Socialism
Is an alternative economic system.
Socialist societies, the means of generating wealth, such as factories, large farms, and banks, are owned by the government and not by private individuals.
The government accumulates wealth and then redistributes it to citizens, primarily in the form of social programs that provide such things as free or inexpensive health care, education, and childcare.
Socialist countries, the government also usually owns and controls utilities such as electricity, transportation systems like airlines and railroads, and telecommunications systems.
Oligarchy:
Only members of a certain political party or ruling elite can participate in government.
For example, in China, the government is run by members of the Chinese Communist Party.
Three Nations That Tried Socialism and Rejected It
Israel, India, and the United Kingdom all adopted socialism as an economic model following World War II.
Socialism is guilty of a fatal conceit: It believes its system can make better decisions for the people than they can for themselves.
Socialism has failed in every country in which it has been tried.
https://www.heritage.org/progressivism/commentary/three-nations-tried-socialism-and-rejected-it
Toll Goods, Public Goods,
Toll goods are available to many people, and many people can make use of them, but only if they can pay the price. They occupy a middle ground between public and private goods.
Thus, the market cannot provide everything (in enough quantity or at low enough costs) in order to meet everyone’s needs. Therefore, some goods are provided by the government. Such goods or services that are available to all without charge are called public goods. Two such public goods are national security and education.
Private Goods and Common Goods
Government also performs the important job of protecting common goods: goods that all people may use free of charge but that are of limited supply, such as fish in the sea or clean drinking water.
In the United States, the democratic government works closely together with its capitalist economic system. The interconnectedness of the two affects the way in which goods and services are distributed. The market provides many goods and services needed by Americans.
For example, food, clothing, and housing are provided in ample supply by private businesses that earn a profit in return. These goods and services are known as private goods.
People can purchase what they need in the quantity in which they need it.
Meaning of Democracy
Democracy is a system of government in which the policy decisions of the government rest on the freely given consent of the people and that guarantees certain basic rights, such as freedom of speech and right to vote.
Representative democracy is a form of democracy in which public officials who represent the people are elected by popular vote in free elections.
Direct democracy- is a form of democracy in which the people themselves meet to discuss and decide issues of public policy.
Direct democracy includes the process of referendum, initiative, and recall
Majority rule/Minority rights
Majority rule
Minority rights
A basic principal of democracy under which public policy is set by the freely given consent of the majority either directly by the people through elected officials but limited by the recognition of certain basic rights of the minority.
A majority usually constituted by fifty percent plus one of an organized group will have the power to make decisions binding upon the whole
Those rights of the minority recognized in a democracy.
These include the rights to vote, to run for political office, and to express dissenting political opinions.
In the American system of government these rights are found in the Constitution especially in the 4th Amendment.
Totalitarian
Another nondemocratic form of government is oligarchy, in which a handful of elite members of society, often those who belong to a particular political party, hold all political power.
For example, in Cuba, as in China, only members of the Communist Party are allowed to vote or hold public office, and the party’s most important members make all government decisions.
Some nondemocratic societies are totalitarian in nature.
Under totalitarianism, the government is more important than the citizens, and it controls all aspects of citizens’ lives. Citizens’ rights are limited, and the government does not allow political criticism or opposition.
These forms of government are fairly rare. North Korea is an example of a totalitarian government.
Monarchy
Most countries now have some form of representative government
At the other end of the political spectrum are elite-driven forms of government.
In a monarchy, one ruler, usually a hereditary ruler, holds political power.
Although the power of some monarchs is limited by law, and such kings and queens often rule along with an elected legislature that makes laws for the country, this is not always the case.
Many southwest Asian kingdoms, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, have absolute monarchs whose power is unrestricted.
ELITISM VS. PLURALISM
Many Americans fear that a set of elite citizens is really in charge of government in the United States and that others have no influence.
This belief is called the elite theory of government.
In contrast to that perspective is the pluralist theory of government, which says that political power rests with competing interest groups who share influence in government.
Pluralist theorists assume that citizens who want to get involved in the system do so because of the great number of access points to government.
That is, the U.S. system, with several levels and branches, has many places where people and groups can engage the government.
The Bases of Democracy
Self-Government
The Social Contract
Majority Rule
Minority Rights
Limited Government
Democratic Institutions
Free Elections
An Organized Opposition
Free Expression of Ideas
Equality
Universal Education
Self-government
The political idea that people are sufficiently rational to govern themselves and do not need to be ruled by kings or tyrants.
A pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person.
James Madison
Social contract
Is an agreement among members of the society in which they accept existing laws and penalties as binding.
A second contract created government. It went into effect when a majority of the people agreed on the form of government that was created by the contract.
Limited Government
Government has only those powers delegated to it by the people.
Several articles and amendments to the Constitution create a limited federal government: one restrained to specific, enumerated powers.
This federal system serves as a check on government power.
Article I lists the powers of Congress
Article II lists the powers of the executive branch
Article III lists the powers of the judiciary branch
Limited Government
The structure and purpose of each branch was devised so as to assure checks and balances, which provide another way of limiting government power and potential abuses.
The Tenth Amendment notes that the states or the people retain those powers not delegated to the federal government.
Constitutionalism which holds that the power of government should be defined and limited in a written document that serves as the basic law of the land.
Constitutional democracy is a government under law in which coalition and majority rule is balanced by minority and individual rights, and in which most rights are balanced by responsibilities — including the responsibility of each citizen to study the history of constitutional government in order to illuminate it in ways that no definition ever can … and in order, thereby, to allow it to evolve further in light of ancient wisdoms and the needs of our evolving global civilization.
Civil Liberties rights of the individual that are guaranteed by the U.S Constitution. Example: The First Amendment to the Constitution, allows an individual to be free to speak, think, assemble, organize, worship, or petition without government (or even private) interference or restraints.
Democratic Institutions
The U.S. Constitution established a government with 3 Branches:
Executive– President
Legislative– Congress
Judiciary– Courts
The U.S. Constitution outlines the authority of the branches of government:
Article 1 Section 1: U.S. Constitution: All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
Article 2 Section 2: The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice-President chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows:
Article 3 Section 1: The Judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behavior, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services a Compensation which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.
Free Elections
Election Day in the United States is the day set by law for the election of public officials.
For federal offices (United States Congress, President and Vice President), it occurs on the Tuesday after the first Monday of November in even-numbered years; the earliest possible date is November 2 and the latest November 8.
Presidential elections are held every four years
United States House of Representatives unlimited two-year terms
United States Senate unlimited six- year terms.
General elections in which presidential candidates are not on the ballot are referred to as midterm elections
Voting Amendments in the U.S.
15th Amendment: Race No Bar to Vote
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Passed by Congress: 2/26/1869
Ratified by states & took effect: 2/3/1870
19th Amendment: Women's Suffrage
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any on account of sex.
Passed by Congress: 6/4/1919
Ratified & took effect: 8/18/1920
Voting Amendments in the U.S.
26th Amendment: Voting Age
The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of age.
Passed by Congress: 3/23/1971
Ratified & went into effect: 7/1/1971
An Organized Opposition
Political Parties- an organization that attempts to influence the political system by gaining the support of voters and especially by getting it’s members elected or appointed to public office.
Two party system:
Democratic party
Republican party
The Democratic Party
has changed significantly during its more than two centuries of existence. During the 19th century the party supported or tolerated slavery, and it opposed civil rights reforms after the Civil War in order to retain the support of Southern voters. By the mid-20th century it had undergone a dramatic ideological realignment and reinvented itself as a party supporting organized labor, the civil rights of minorities, and progressive reform.
Since President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal of the 1930s, the party has also tended to favor greater government intervention in the economy and to oppose government intervention in the private, noneconomic affairs of citizens. The logo of the Democratic Party, the donkey, was popularized by cartoonist Thomas Nast in the 1870s; though widely used, it has never been officially adopted by the party.
Republican Party Grand Old Party (GOP)
During the 19th century the Republican Party stood against the extension of slavery to the country’s new territories and, ultimately, for slavery’s complete abolition.
During the 20th and 21st centuries the party came to be associated with laissez-faire capitalism, low taxes, and conservative social policies.
The party acquired the acronym GOP, widely understood as “Grand Old Party,” in the 1870s.
The party’s official logo, the elephant, is derived from a cartoon by Thomas Nast and also dates from the 1870s.
Free Expression of Ideas
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Equality
Political equality means that all laws and restrictions or freedoms of those laws apply the same way to every person, no matter what their position in life.
Equality should apply in many areas of human life:
Before the law
Of political rights
Of social and economic opportunity
Of economic condition
Universal Education
Democracy requires that citizens have some understanding of public issues to make electoral choices.
Requires tolerance and respect for the rights of others
The ability to compromise on public issues.
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